A U.S. congressman looking to thwart President Joe Biden, a fellow Democrat, from a second term assailed Biden as "weak and unelectable" on Saturday as he tried to take advantage of Biden's absence from New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary.
Congressman Dean Phillips, a wealthy Democrat from Minnesota who is running for president, said during a campaign event in Nashua, New Hampshire, that he hoped to expose what he called Biden's weakness by doing well in the coming Tuesday's voting.
U.S. Representative Dean Phillips holds a campaign event at Hanover Inn Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire, U.S., January 18, 2024. /CFP
Phillips said a strong showing by him would be getting upwards of 20 percent or more of the vote. "Going from zero to somewhere in the 20s would be pretty awesome, I think."
"Sadly it's going to demonstrate that our incumbent president is unelectable and weak and I think it's going to show this country that there's a candidate here who can actually do here what has been promised for generations," Phillips told reporters after addressing dozens of people at a senior citizen activity center.
He also noted Biden's advanced age, 81. "If you listen to the voters, people feel he's at a stage of life that makes it incompatible to leading the free world. And the same is true of Donald Trump," said Phillips, 55.
The Biden re-election campaign did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Biden is skipping the New Hampshire primary after the Republican-run state refused his demand to give up its first in nation primary spot to South Carolina. But Biden's supporters are mounting a write-in campaign to avoid an embarrassing loss in the state on primary election day on Tuesday.
The New Hampshire primary on January 23 offers the first at-the-polls gauge of Biden's political strength this election cycle, and the unprecedented situation will be closely watched amid polls showing him tied with Trump.
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